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Blue Origin Enterprises, L.P. is a private American space technology company headquartered in Kent, Washington. The company operates the suborbital New Shepard rocket and the heavy-lift New Glenn rocket. In addition to producing engines for its own rockets, Blue Origin supplies engines for other vehicles, including United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur. It is also working on the Blue Moon human lunar lander for NASA's Artemis program, the Blue Ring spacecraft platform, and the Orbital Reef space station in partnership with other organizations.
Founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin initially operated with a stealth startup, funded by Bezos's private investments. In 2015, the company achieved a significant milestone with the first uncrewed launch and landing of the New Shepard and announced plans for New Glenn. In 2021, New Shepard completed its first crewed mission with Bezos himself on board, crossing the Kármán line, the conventional definition of the edge of space, above sea level. Another key achievement came in January 2023 when the company delivered its first BE-4 rocket engine to United Launch Alliance. Despite these milestones, Blue Origin has faced criticism for its perceived slow progress, particularly when compared to SpaceX. Addressing these challenges, the company underwent a leadership change in September 2023, appointing Dave Limp as CEO to succeed Bob Smith.
On January 16, 2025, Blue Origin reached orbit with the first launch of the New Glenn vehicle. On April 14, 2025, Blue Origin completed its 11th human spaceflight and its 31st spaceflight for the New Shepard Program with an all-female crew of six.
In early 2026, in a surprise move, the company halted launches of its New Shepard, in order to focus resources on lunar landing efforts of the Artemis program.
After initiating the development of an orbital rocket system prior to 2012, and stating in 2013 on their website that the first stage would perform a powered vertical landing and be reusable, the company publicly announced their orbital launch vehicle intentions in September 2015. In January 2016, the company indicated that the new rocket would be many times larger than New Shepard. The company publicly released the high-level design of the vehicle and announced its name in September 2016 as "New Glenn". The New Glenn heavy-lift launch vehicle can be configured in both two-stage and three-stage variants. New Glenn first successfully launched in January, 2025.
On July 20, 2021, New Shepard performed its first crewed mission to sub-orbital space called Blue Origin NS-16. The flight lasted approximately 10 minutes and crossed the Kármán line. The passengers were Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark Bezos, Wally Funk, and Oliver Daemen, after the unnamed auction winner (later revealed to have been Justin Sun) dropped out due to a scheduling conflict. Subsequent New Shepard passenger and cargo missions were: Blue Origin NS-17, Blue Origin NS-18, Blue Origin NS-19, Blue Origin NS-20, Blue Origin NS-21 and Blue Origin NS-23.
The company primarily employs an incremental approach from sub-orbital to orbital flight, with each developmental step building on its prior work. The company moved into the orbital spaceflight technology development business in 2014, initially as a rocket engine supplier via a contractual agreement to build the BE-4 rocket engine, for major US launch system operator United Launch Alliance (ULA). United Launch Alliance (ULA) has said that the first flight of its Vulcan Centaur heavy-lift launch vehicle is scheduled to launch in Q4 of 2023. The heavy-lift launch vehicles main power is supported by two BE-4 engines. On June 7, 2023, United Launch Alliance (ULA) performed a Flight Readiness Firing of the Vulcan Centaur rocket at launch pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States. The two BE-4 worked as expected.
In 2024, the company won its first National Security Space Launch (NSSL) contract. The New Glenn vehicle is to be used on the launches.
On November 13, 2025 launched its first NASA mission, ESCAPADE, deploying two NASA science satellites to study Mars' atmosphere. The company utilized its New Glenn rocket and successfully landed the booster on a barge Landing Platform Vessel 1 named Jacklyn in the Atlantic Ocean.
The New Shepard is a rocket that consists of a booster rocket and a crew capsule. The capsule can be configured to house up to six , cargo, or a combination of both. The booster rocket is powered by one BE-3PM engine, which sends the capsule to an apogee of and flies above the Kármán line, where passengers and cargo can experience a few minutes of weightlessness before the capsule returns to Earth.
The launch vehicle is designed to be fully reusable, with the capsule returning to Earth via three and a solid rocket motor. The booster lands vertically on the same launchpad it took off from. The company has successfully launched and landed the New Shepard launch vehicle 26 times with one partial failure (deemed successful) and one failure. The launch vehicle has a length of , a diameter of and a launch mass of . The BE-3PM engine produces 490 kN of thrust at takeoff. The New Shepard allows the company to significantly reduce the cost of space tourism.
On the morning of February 25, 2025, Blue Origin launched its 10th space tourism mission and sent six paying passengers to suborbital space. This was the company's tenth human flight, and its 30th overall flight of New Shepard.
Like the New Shepard, New Glenn's first stage is also designed to be reusable. In 2021, the company initiated conceptual design work on approaches to potentially make the second stage reusable as well, with the project codenamed "Project Jarvis".
In 2024, Blue Origin received funding from the USSF to assess New Glenn's ability to launch national security payloads. On January 16, 2025, Blue Origin achieved its first successful launch of New Glenn from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station's Launch Complex 36. The mission's primary objective was to deploy the Blue Ring Pathfinder test satellite, which was successfully placed into orbit.
NASA announced in February 2023 that it had selected the New Glenn heavy-lift launch vehicle for the launch of two EscaPADE. The New Glenn heavy-lift launch vehicle launched ESCAPADE on 13 November 2025 with the ESCAPADE spacecraft entering Mars's orbit approximately one year after launch, and the first stage booster returning successfully.
In 2020, Blue Origin, in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper, submitted the Blue Moon lunar lander proposal for NASA's Artemis program. After NASA awarded the human landing system (HLS) contract to SpaceX in 2021 for its Starship HLS, Blue Origin contested the decision. This challenge ultimately led to NASA awarding a separate contract for Blue Moon in 2023.
The lander is powered by the BE-7 hydrolox engine. On May 19, 2023, NASA contracted Blue Origin to develop, test, and deploy the Blue Moon landing system for the Artemis V mission. This mission will support lunar exploration and lay the groundwork for future crewed missions to Mars. The $3.4 billion contract includes an uncrewed test mission followed by a crewed Moon landing planned for 2029.
In mid-2024, Blue Origin announced the successful completion of initial acceptance testing on the thrusters for the MK1 variant of the Blue Moon lander.
In late 2014, the company signed an agreement with United Launch Alliance (ULA) to develop the BE-4 engine, for ULA's upgraded Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur rockets replacing the RD-180 Russian-made rocket engine. The newly developed heavy-lift launch vehicle will use two of the BE-4 engines on each first stage. The engine development program for the BE-4 began in 2011.
On October 31, 2022, a Twitter post by the official Blue Origin account announced that the first two BE-4 engines had been delivered to ULA and were being integrated on a Vulcan rocket. In a later tweet, ULA CEO Tory Bruno said that one of the engines had already been installed on the booster, and that the other would be joining it momentarily. On June 7, 2023, the two BE-4 rocket engines performed as expected when ULA performed a Flight Readiness Firing of the Vulcan Rocket at launch pad 41 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Vulcan Centaur launched for the first time on January 8, 2024, successfully carrying Astrobotic Technology's Peregrine lunar lander, the first mission on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program using the BE-4 engine.
The company's headquarters is in Kent, Washington. Rocket development takes place at its headquarters. The company has continued to expand its Seattle-area offices and rocket production facilities since 2016, purchasing an adjacent -building. In 2017, the company filed permits to build a new warehouse complex and an additional of office space. The company established a new headquarters and R&D facility, called the O'Neill Building on June 6, 2020.
The site hosts the company's sub-orbital launch pad for its New Shepard rocket along with a landing pad. Additionally, LSO has a number of rocket engine test stands and engine test cells are to support the hydrolox, methalox and storable propellant engines. There are three test cells for the BE-3 and BE-4 engines. The test cells support full-thrust and full-duration burns, and one supports short-duration, high-pressure preburner tests.
The company is planning a third major expansion in Huntsville and the company purchased adjacent to its already sprawling campus at the price of $1.427 million.
The company facility is situated on of land assembled from the former Launch complexes 11, 12, 36A and 36B. The land parcel used to build a rocket engine test stand for the BE-4 engine, a launch mount, called the Orbital Launch Site, (hence its name) and a reusable booster refurbishment facility for the New Glenn launch vehicle, which is expected to land on a drone ship and return to Port Canaveral for refurbishment. Manufacturing of "large elements, such as New Glenn's first and second stages as well as the and other large components will be made nearby in Exploration Park, which is near the entrance to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, Florida.
In addition to their Florida operations, they have also been leased the greenfield of Space Launch Complex 9 (SLC-9) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, where they plan to construct a New Glenn launch pad to give the launch vehicle polar orbit and Sun-synchronous orbit capabilities.
Orbital Reef's design will be modular in nature, to provide the greatest amount of customization and compatibility. It will reportedly be designed to accept docking from almost every spacecraft in operation, such as SpaceX Dragon 2, Soyuz (spacecraft), Dream Chaser, and Boeing Starliner. The initial modules will be: Life, Node, Core, and Research Modules.
In 2024 NASA increased funding for Orbital Reef by $42 million, bringing the total award to $172 million.
The DARPA awarded General Atomics, Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin contracts to fund and build Nuclear power spacecraft under the agency's Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations program or DRACO program. The company was awarded $2.9 million to develop spacecraft component designs.
In partnership with Blue Origin, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, GE Research, Framatome and Materion, USNC-Tech won a $5 million contract from NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a long range nuclear propulsion system called the Power Adjusted Demonstration Mars Engine, or PADME.
Gary Lai, chief architect of the New Shepard rocket said during the pathfinder awards at the Seattle Museum of Flight that The "aims to be the first company that harvests natural resources from the Moon to use here on Earth". He also mentioned that the company is building a novel approach to extract outer space's vast resources.
In the chart below, ♺ means "Flight Proven Booster".
| +New Shepard and test vehicle flight data |
In April 2011, The company received a commitment from NASA for $22 million of funding under the CCDev phase 2 program. Milestones included (1) performing a Mission Concept Review (MCR) and System Requirements Review (SRR) on the orbital Space Vehicle, which utilizes a bionic shape to optimize its launch profile and atmospheric reentry, (2) further maturing the pusher escape system, including ground and flight tests, and (3) accelerating development of its BE-3 LOX/LH2 engine through full-scale thrust chamber testing.
In 2012, NASA's Commercial Crew Program released its follow-on CCiCap solicitation for the development of crew delivery to ISS by 2017. The company did not submit a proposal for CCiCap, but reportedly continued work on its development program with private funding. The company had a failed attempt to lease a different part of the Space Coast, when they submitted a bid in 2013 to lease Launch Complex 39A (LC39A) at the Kennedy Space Center – on land to the north of, and adjacent to, Cape Canaveral AFS – following NASA's decision to lease the unused complex out as part of a bid to reduce annual operation and maintenance costs. The companies bid was for shared and non-exclusive use of the LC39A complex such that the launchpad was to have been able to interface with multiple Launch vehicle, and costs for using the launch pad were to have been shared across multiple companies over the term of the lease. One potential shared user in the companies proposed plan was United Launch Alliance (ULA). Commercial use of the LC39A launch complex was awarded to SpaceX, which submitted a bid for exclusive use of the launch complex to support their crewed missions.
The company completed work for NASA on several small development contracts, receiving total funding of $25.7 million by 2013. In September 2013 – before completion of the bid period, and before any public announcement by NASA of the results of the process – Florida Today reported that the company had filed a protest with the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) "over what it says is a plan by NASA to award an exclusive commercial lease to SpaceX for use of mothballed space shuttle launch pad 39A". NASA had originally planned to complete the bid award and have the pad transferred by October 1, 2013, but the protest delayed a decision until the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) reached a decision on the protest. SpaceX said that they would be willing to support a multi-user arrangement for pad 39A. In December 2013, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) denied the companies protest and sided with NASA, which argued that the solicitation contained no preference on the use of the facility as either multi-use or single-use. "The solicitation document merely asked bidders to explain their reasons for selecting one approach instead of the other and how they would manage the facility". NASA selected the SpaceX proposal in late 2013 and signed a 20-year lease contract for Launch Pad 39A to SpaceX in April 2014.
The company placed their first bid via the NASA Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) competition to fund and develop a lunar lander capable of transporting to and from the lunar surface. The Blue Origin led team called the "National Team" included, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Draper. On April 30, 2020, the company and its partners won a $579 million contract to start developing and testing an integrated Human Landing System (HLS) for the Artemis program to return humans to the Moon. However, the Blue Origin led team lost their first bid to work for NASA's Artemis program and on April 16, 2021, NASA officially selected the SpaceX to develop, test and build their version of the Human Landing System (HLS) for Artemis program missions 2 (II), 3 (III) and 4 (IV).
In early 2021, the company received over $275 million from NASA for lunar lander projects and sub-orbital research flights.
The company then announced on December 6, 2022, that it had submitted a second bid via the NASA Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) competition to fund and develop a second lunar lander capable for transporting to and from the lunar surface. The announcement fell within NASA's deadline for Sustaining Lunar Development (SLD) proposals. As with their first bid, the company is leading another team called the "National Team" which includes Draper, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Astrobotic, Honeybee Robotics and Blue Origin.
On May 19, 2023, NASA contracted the company to develop, test and deploy its Blue Moon landing system for the agency's Artemis V mission, which explores the Moon and prepares future crewed missions to Mars. The project includes an uncrewed test mission followed by a crewed Moon landing in 2029. The contract value is $3.4 billion.
On August 12, 2025, Blue Origin announced a proposed Mars Telecommunications Orbiter (MTO) mission that would fulfill NASA's new requirements of an orbiter that can be dually-used for both a Mars Sample Return mission and future crewed Mars missions. It would be based on Blue Origin's Blue Ring Satellite Platform supplemented by a yet unclarified small number of deployable UHF relay satellites that would enable it to provide wide-area coverage. It is envisioned by Blue Origin to be operational by 2028.
The company received $181 million from the United States Air Force for launch vehicle development in 2019. The company was also eligible to benefit from further grants totaling $500M as part of the U.S. Space Force Launch Services Agreement competition. On November 18, 2022, the U.S. Space Systems Command announced that an agreement with the company that "paves the way" for the company's New Glenn rocket to compete for national security launch contracts once it completes its required flight certifications for Top Secret military payloads.
In an interview with Bob Smith by the financial Times in 2023, Smith said that the company had "hundreds of millions in revenue as well as billions of dollars in orders".
The company is part of the DARPA Lunar Programs, specifically Luna10, an architecture study for lunar surface operations.
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